Salad in a Hurry

Salads are always good on hot days and healthful any time, but when you are tired after work they can sound just too hard. Bill and I use shortcuts and we can whip up a salad in fewer than 5 minutes. TV chefs make everything look easy because someone has done the vegetable prep ahead of time. That’s our secret too. Washing the lettuce is the hard part, so we splurge and buy pre-washed greens. We bought it once in the large size plastic box and now that box is used for our refrigerator “salad kit”. (Cut off the corners off the lip of the container lid so it comes off easily.) In the box we have:

Shredded carrots wrapped in a paper towel (I ran them through a Salad Shooter because I hate the so-called “baby” cocktail carrots. They smell a little musty to me and are really ground down big carrots.)

Some big hunks of washed celery stalk. (Don’t dice it ahead because the cut surfaces brown.)

Cucumber (On the part we are using that day I remove the green peel with a potato peeler. The peel is usually waxy and makes the cucumber harder to digest.)

A red bell pepper (I slice a little off both cut edges each time and it doesn’t have a chance to get slimy.)

Hearts of Romaine to add crunch. I buy a bag of the organic bunches because it is less expensive than the already chopped. We remove one bunch at a time and wash. The individual leaves and drain. I only chop what I need for that day so they don’t brown.

We usually have separate containers of mixed spring greens and cherry tomatoes (we do not refrigerate the tomatoes).

By having everything that we like all together and prewashed and shredded or otherwise as prepped as possible, making a salad is no longer intimidating. (Having Bill work on it too is a big help.) We usually add some walnut pieces, sprouted pumpkin seeds and a simple dressing made with MacNut Oil mixed with vinegar (maybe with pear-infused white balsamic vinegar?)

Wash the container weekly. When it wears out be sure to recycle it. Organic produce is always best, but check here to see which produce EWG currently finds as the most contaminated or clean.

To make the salad into a whole stick-to-the-ribs meal: add avocado, strips of chicken, turkey or steak, hardboiled eggs, cheese and/or extra nuts.

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